Royal Mail delays are no longer only a story about late letters. A Nuneaton baker told the BBC on Thursday 5 November that tracked parcels were failing to reach the depot and that she was paying to re-bake lost orders, and on Friday 6 November Royal Mail confirmed staff shortages and sickness were disrupting deliveries in Wisbech, with short-term staffing problems at other Cambridgeshire offices.
The reports arrive exactly three weeks before Black Friday, at the point when online sellers commit to delivery promises for the busiest weeks of the year. This article sets out what has been confirmed, how far the problem reaches, who legally pays when an order is late, how little compensation the main services offer, and what shoppers and small sellers can do now.
In short
- New reports: the BBC reported on 5 and 6 November that Royal Mail delays are affecting small online sellers and households, with Royal Mail blaming “resourcing pressures” in parts of Cambridgeshire.
- Scale: an October agreement between Royal Mail and its union identifies 195 delivery units as needing priority stabilisation, roughly one in six of about 1,200 offices.
- Who pays the shopper: when a consumer buys from a business, the goods stay at the seller’s risk until they arrive, under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.
- Who pays the seller: Tracked 24 and Tracked 48 carry no compensation for delay, according to Citizens Advice, and loss cover on those services stops at £75.
- Dates to plan around: Black Friday is 27 November, and Royal Mail’s last recommended posting dates run from 18 to 23 December depending on the service.
What has happened to Royal Mail deliveries this week?
Three separate BBC reports in two days have put fresh detail on a problem that has been building for months. Taken together, they show delays touching parcels sold by small firms, everyday letters and, in one case, mail found dumped by the roadside.
The small business view: “it makes us look bad”
Sally Rees owns Wicked Cookies in Nuneaton and a shop in Leamington Spa, and she sells by mail order using Royal Mail’s Tracked 24 service. She told the BBC that about 80% of deliveries go without issue, which implies around one order in five does not, and that things have worsened over the past three months. In the three days before speaking to the BBC, she said, parcels had been collected from her business but tracking showed they had not been checked in at the depot.
Her response is revealing about where the cost lands. When an order has not arrived after two days, the firm bakes it again at its own expense, because customers have paid for fresh food. She said a claim against Royal Mail was not worth making, since the process does not cover the box, the packaging or the time spent baking.
Royal Mail told the BBC that when a business customer’s item is lost, it offers compensation for the cost price of the item as well as the postage paid. It also said tracking should update only when a business customer advises that a parcel is on its way, when the item is in the network ready for delivery, and when it has been delivered. Customers with concerns about a particular item were encouraged to contact the company directly.
On Friday morning the BBC reported that Royal Mail had blamed staff shortages and sickness for ongoing issues in Wisbech. One resident said she had waited three weeks for a replacement debit card and would not bother sending Christmas cards this year. Royal Mail said offices in Peterborough, Orton Southgate, March and Huntingdon had also seen delays in recent days, but described those as unrelated short-term staffing issues.
“Resourcing pressures have recently affected some deliveries in the area, and we are currently recruiting for temporary and permanent members of staff to support our posties,” the company said. It added: “We know there is more to do and remain focused on restoring a reliable and consistent service for customers.” North East Cambridgeshire MP Steve Barclay said he had raised residents’ concerns with the company.
Separately, the BBC reported that Royal Mail had opened an investigation after an estimated 600 unopened letters were handed to the office of SDLP assembly member Mark H Durkan, after being found on Mobuoy Road and at a layby near the River Foyle in Londonderry. The Police Service of Northern Ireland said inquiries were ongoing and it was liaising with Royal Mail. Royal Mail said it would work to recover the items and return them to the network, and no cause has been established, so it should not be read as evidence of the wider staffing problem.
Why online sellers are more exposed than letter writers
Most public anger so far has centred on missed hospital appointments and bank cards. For retailers the risk is commercial and it arrives at the worst moment. Adobe Digital Insights forecast UK online spending of £28.52bn over the Christmas season, and very small sellers tend to have fewer delivery options than large retailers with several contracted carriers.
Ms Rees put the imbalance plainly. She has an account manager, she told the BBC, “but honestly, they can’t do anything”, and a small firm has no power to get a problem looked at. She also said other couriers she has used had similar issues, a useful reminder that switching carrier is not an automatic cure.
Trade reporting points the same way. Decision Marketing reported in October that the dispute had created uncertainty among direct mail and online shopping clients about Black Friday and Christmas campaigns, quoting an unnamed industry source who said Royal Mail “can’t even cope with the every day post, let alone the huge festive surge”. That is one anonymous view, and Royal Mail has insisted that union criticism does not reflect its preparations for Christmas, but it shows how nervous business customers have become.
How widespread are the Royal Mail delays?
There is no public national count of late parcels, so any honest answer has to be pieced together. Royal Mail maintains a service update page listing affected areas, and has said a listed postcode does not mean every address within it is affected. The clearest measure of depth comes from an agreement between the company and the union.
According to the Communication Workers Union (CWU), the joint statement agreed in October identifies 195 delivery units with more than 10,000 workplan failures, delivery point coverage below 90%, or both. Against the roughly 1,200 delivery offices cited in Royal Mail’s own rollout figures, that is about one unit in six needing priority attention going into peak.
| Area | What has been reported | Source and date |
|---|---|---|
| Wisbech, Cambridgeshire | Staff shortages and sickness; resident waiting three weeks for a debit card | BBC, 6 November |
| Peterborough, Orton Southgate, March, Huntingdon | Delays in recent days, attributed to short-term staffing issues | BBC, 6 November |
| Nuneaton and Leamington Spa | Tracked parcels not checked in at depot; business re-baking orders at its own cost | BBC, 5 November |
| Glasgow Southside | Residents reporting delays of up to five weeks | Glasgow Times headline, 4 November |
| Warrington | Royal Mail boss apologising over delivery problems | Warrington Guardian headline, 4 November |
| Bridgwater, Somerset | Letters taking up to four weeks; MP told of 17 depot vacancies | BBC, 12 October |
Two caveats matter here. This table reflects what has been reported, not a complete map, and places with no coverage may simply have had none. Experience also varies between letters and parcels: in Bridgwater, one organiser told the BBC that parcels were generally coming through while letters arrived in bundles every three to four weeks.
Parcel complaints are not unique to Royal Mail either. Ofcom’s latest parcel survey found that 71% of recipients had a delivery problem in the past six months, up from 68%, with delays the most common complaint at 32%, the Press Association reported.
What is causing the problems?
Royal Mail and the CWU agree that resourcing is central, but they disagree sharply about how bad it is and who is to blame. The argument runs through a change to delivery patterns that has reshaped the workload at most offices.
The new delivery model
Under Ofcom’s reforms, second-class letters move to alternate weekdays with no Saturday delivery, while first-class letters and parcels stay on a Monday to Saturday pattern. As we reported when Royal Mail paused the final stage of the rollout, just under 1,100 offices had already switched by late October, with 15 more due by 2 November. The remaining 107 wait until the new year: Royal Mail gives 11 January 2027, while the CWU’s summary of the joint statement says those units will not deploy before 13 January.
That means roughly nine in ten offices go through peak on a system that is still bedding in. Chief executive Alistair Cochrane said offices on the new model deliver to about 95% of addresses each day on average, compared with 88% before rollout. The union calls claims of improvement from what it describes as an exceptionally low starting point “highly misleading”, and says parcel growth is increasingly creating unachievable workloads for delivery staff.
The staffing numbers
The CWU says Royal Mail’s own figures show departures rising from an average of 326 to 400 employees a week, mainly new entrants. Decision Marketing reported Royal Mail’s reply that it is hiring 480 recruits a week. Taken at face value, those two figures would mean only a small net gain, and new recruits on unfamiliar walks are unlikely to match experienced staff immediately.
The joint statement also commits to making 8,100 temporary increases in hours permanent: 4,600 by the end of November and the rest, 2,500 uplifts plus 1,000 increases in contracted hours, by 31 January 2027. For the Christmas peak, Royal Mail says it is deploying 22,000 seasonal workers, 7,500 extra hire vans and five temporary parcel sorting centres.
What the official delivery figures show
Performance has improved from a very poor base but remains below target. The most recent quarterly figures we could find are for April to June, and they predate much of the autumn’s reported disruption.
| Period | First class, next working day | First-class target | Second class, within three working days | Second-class target |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year to March 2026 | 75.7% | 93% | 90.2% | 98.5% |
| Q1 2025–26 | 76% | 93% | 89.3% | 98.5% |
| Q1 2026–27 | 85% | 90% | 91.4% | 95% |
Figures come from Ofcom’s June statement and Press Association reporting. Note that the targets were lowered between the two most recent lines, so the gap has narrowed partly because the bar moved.
There is one detail shoppers rarely see. Ofcom says it measures performance against annual targets running from April to March, excluding the Christmas period. So the weeks that matter most to online retailers do not count towards the regulated targets at all, and a poor December would not by itself appear in that headline measure.
These figures also measure first and second-class mail, not a seller’s Tracked 24 parcels. Royal Mail’s product page calls next working day a “delivery aim” rather than a guarantee, and says no target time is provided for some postcode areas.
Who pays when an online order arrives late?
For most shoppers, the answer is simpler than the frustration suggests: your contract is with the retailer, not with Royal Mail. Sellers often assume that once a parcel is handed over, the problem belongs to the carrier, but UK consumer law generally says otherwise.
What the law says for consumers
Under section 29 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015, goods remain at the trader’s risk until they come into the physical possession of the consumer or someone the consumer has identified to receive them. The main exception is where the consumer commissions their own carrier and it was not an option named by the trader. In ordinary online shopping, where the retailer picks or offers the courier, the risk stays with the retailer.
Section 28 adds the timing rule. Unless a time is agreed, the trader must deliver without undue delay and in any event within 30 days of the contract. If a delivery date was essential, either because of the circumstances or because you said so before ordering, you can treat the contract as ended when it is missed and claim a refund. If it was not essential, you can set a further reasonable period, and if that passes without delivery you can also end the contract, with the trader required to refund you without undue delay.
This has a practical consequence for Christmas. If an order has to arrive by a certain date, say so in writing before you buy, because that is what can turn a loose expectation into an essential term.
The position changes with the type of purchase, as the table below shows.
| Type of purchase | Who you deal with first | Main position |
|---|---|---|
| Consumer buys from an online retailer or business seller | The seller | Consumer Rights Act applies; goods at seller’s risk until they arrive |
| Consumer buys from a private individual on a resale site | The seller and the platform | The Act’s trader rules do not apply to a genuine private sale; check the platform’s buyer protection terms |
| Consumer arranges their own courier, not one offered by the seller | The courier | Risk can pass on handover to that carrier |
| Business buys from a business | The seller, under the contract terms | The Consumer Rights Act consumer provisions do not apply; contract terms decide |
| You posted a gift yourself | Royal Mail | You claim under the service you bought; see the table below |
Card payments can provide a second route. For a purchase costing more than £100 and up to £30,000 on a credit card, section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 can make the card provider jointly liable for breach of contract, and banks may also consider a chargeback. Neither replaces asking the seller first.
How much compensation can a seller claim from Royal Mail?
Not much for delay, and a limited amount for loss. This is the gap Ms Rees described, where the seller owes the customer a working order but recovers only a fraction of the cost. The figures below come from Citizens Advice guidance and Royal Mail’s own product pages, and business account customers should check their contract, because terms can differ.
| Service | If delayed | If lost |
|---|---|---|
| First and second class | Price of the postage (parcels: the lowest price for that size) | Stamps and item value up to £20, or stamps only |
| Signed For first and second class | Price of the postage, as above | Stamps and item value up to £20, or stamps only |
| Tracked 24 and Tracked 48 | No compensation for delay | Item value up to £75; only the sender can claim |
| Special Delivery by 1pm | £5, or £10 if at least seven working days late | Postage refund plus item value up to £750, more with extra cover |
| Special Delivery by 9am | Full postage refund | Item value up to £50, more with extra cover |
The contrast in cover is stark. Royal Mail lists Tracked 24 for a small parcel at £6.05, or £4.80 online, with loss cover capped at the lower of £75 or the item’s value. Special Delivery by 1pm at 2kg with £750 of cover is listed at £16.55, or £16.05 online, and cover can be raised to £2,500 for an extra charge.
Citizens Advice says you need proof of posting, such as a receipt or certificate of posting. A claim for a delayed item can be made after four working days for first class and six for second class, and a sender then has three months from the posting date, while a recipient has one month. For an item treated as lost, claims open after 11 working days for first class and 14 for second class, and must be made within 80 days of posting.
Items posted between the first Monday in December and the first working day in January carry an extra day of waiting before a claim can start. In practice, a parcel posted in the final Christmas rush may not be claimable until after the day it was meant for, so a seller should decide on replacement or refund well before any claim becomes possible.
Are Evri, DPD and other carriers a safer choice?
There is no clean answer, and every option carries its own risks. Survey data suggests big differences in how carriers handle complaints, but that is not the same as measuring how many parcels arrive on time in a particular postcode this December.
| Carrier or service | Ofcom 2026 dissatisfaction | Last recommended Christmas posting date |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon | 15% | Own network; check at checkout |
| FedEx | 15% | Check with the carrier |
| Yodel | 33% | Check with the carrier |
| Evri | 42% | Next Day Tracked via Post Office: 21 December |
| DPD | Not among figures reported by PA | Gold via Post Office: 23 December |
| Parcelforce | Not among figures reported by PA | express48: 21 December; express24: 22 December |
Sellers weighing a switch to Evri should keep an eye on labour relations there too. Motor Transport reported on 5 November that Evri drivers have rejected a pay deal put forward by the company and supported by the GMB union, which included a minimum rate of £15 an hour. In June, GMB said almost 97% of more than 6,000 voting couriers had rejected an earlier offer and that next steps could involve industrial action; we have not seen any strike date announced.
Evri, for its part, has said it invested £32.2 million this year and lifted capacity to 4.9 million parcels a day. It also told the Press Association that third-party data covering 1.3 million of its parcels showed 99.4% delivered within seven working days, though seven working days is a long way from next-day delivery.
What should small online sellers do before Black Friday?
None of the points below can fix a local delivery office, but each one reduces how much a late parcel costs. They reflect the rules and reports set out above and are our suggestions, not official guidance.
- Reword delivery promises now. Quote realistic ranges at checkout rather than “next day”, since the law holds you to an agreed time and Royal Mail describes next working day as an aim.
- Match the service to the value. Tracked cover stops at £75, so anything worth more needs Special Delivery, extra cover or another carrier with suitable insurance.
- Set your own cut-offs ahead of the carrier’s. Publish an order deadline several days before the recommended last posting dates, not on them, particularly for customers in postcodes on Royal Mail’s service update page.
- Keep evidence for every parcel. Proof of posting is needed for a claim, and a photo of a collected batch with a date is useful when tracking shows nothing.
- Open a second carrier account before you need it. A backup is harder to arrange in December, and a test shipment now shows how it behaves.
- Price in the failures. Whatever share of parcels you end up replacing belongs in your margin calculation, along with packaging and labour that compensation will not cover.
- Tell customers first. A short message when a parcel stalls is cheaper than a complaint, and it matters most for perishable or date-specific orders.
Perishable sellers face the hardest choice. Royal Mail’s compensation does not address spoilage in a way that helps a small food business, so a firm like Ms Rees’s needs to decide its replacement policy in advance and may want to stop dispatching before weekends in affected areas.
What should shoppers do to get Christmas orders on time?
Order early, and be precise with sellers. The Christmas deadlines are recommendations rather than guarantees: Friday 18 December for second class, Saturday 19 December for Tracked 48, Monday 21 December for first class and Tracked 24, and Wednesday 23 December for Special Delivery Guaranteed.
- Check who is delivering before you pay. Most retailers show the carrier or delivery option at checkout, which allows you to pick an alternative if your area has been having problems.
- State essential dates in writing. Use the order notes or an email sent before you buy, then keep a copy.
- Chase the seller, not the carrier. If you ordered from a business, it is responsible for delivery, and on Tracked services only the sender can claim from Royal Mail.
- Set a clear final date. If the delivery was not essential, tell the seller in writing the further date by which it must arrive, and ask for a refund if that passes.
- Do not count on the sorting office. Bridgwater’s MP told the BBC some constituents had queued for three or four hours to collect mail, only to find the item still in an unsorted sack.
Anyone waiting on a replacement bank card, a hospital letter or another important document should ask the sender whether it can be issued digitally or by another route. The Wisbech and Bridgwater accounts suggest these items, rather than gifts, may be the most damaging to lose in the post.
What happens next for Royal Mail?
The next few weeks bring several tests. Ministers, the regulator and the union are all pressing the company, though from different directions and with different remedies in mind.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham told the Commons last month that the service had been “unacceptable for far too long”, adding: “They need to bring forward a plan to restore service standards to the level they need to be at. They need to do it quickly or we will consider further measures.” The Secretary of State scheduled a tripartite meeting for Tuesday 3 November, and the CWU said talks between the union, management and government took place that day. We have seen no published outcome.
On Wednesday 4 November, CWU general secretary Dave Ward told union representatives in Bristol that the answer is a “new model of ownership” in which “the government will take a bigger say in the company, and workers have some real ownership”. The union also launched a campaign, SOS Royal Mail, promising to make this “a major political issue come the next election”. Royal Mail has previously urged the union to stop using public commentary to talk down the business.
Ofcom has its own open investigation into 2025/26 performance, launched on 1 June, and has fined the company more than £37m in recent years. Royal Mail has committed to return to regulated targets by April 2027 and to invest £500 million over five years. Ofcom has also said it will set out next steps on parcel regulation in its annual postal monitoring report in December.
Dates to watch:
- 27 November: Black Friday, followed by Cyber Monday on 30 November.
- End of November: deadline for the first 4,600 permanent uplifts under the joint statement.
- December: Ofcom’s annual postal monitoring report.
- 18 to 23 December: Royal Mail’s last recommended posting dates.
- January 2027: rollout resumes at the final 107 offices.
- 31 January 2027: deadline for the new deployment plan at the 195 priority units and the remaining uplifts.
Frequently asked questions
Why is Royal Mail so delayed at the moment?
Royal Mail has blamed resourcing pressures, including staff shortages and sickness in Wisbech and short-term staffing issues at other Cambridgeshire offices. The CWU argues there is a wider recruitment and retention crisis linked to the new delivery model, with about 400 employees leaving each week. Royal Mail disputes the union’s overall description of the business.
Are Royal Mail parcels delayed as well as letters?
Some are. The BBC reported on 5 November that a Nuneaton business was seeing Tracked 24 parcels fail to check in at the depot. However, experience varies by area, and in Bridgwater one organiser said parcels were generally arriving while letters came in bundles. There is no public national figure for late parcels.
Who is responsible if my online order does not arrive?
If you bought from a business as a consumer, the seller is generally responsible. Under section 29 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015, the goods stay at the trader’s risk until they reach you or someone you nominated. The exception is if you arranged your own carrier that the trader did not offer as an option.
Can I get a refund for a late delivery?
Possibly. If a delivery date was essential, you can treat the contract as ended when it is missed and ask for your money back. Otherwise, you can give the seller a further reasonable deadline and claim a refund if it is missed. Without an agreed time, the legal limit for delivery is 30 days.
Does Royal Mail pay compensation for delayed Tracked 24 parcels?
No. Citizens Advice says Tracked 24 and Tracked 48 items do not qualify for delay compensation. If such an item is lost, the sender can claim its value up to £75, and only the sender can make that claim. Business account holders should check the terms of their own contract.
When can I claim for a lost item from Royal Mail?
According to Citizens Advice, a lost UK item can be claimed for 11 working days after posting by first class, 14 working days by second class and five working days after the due date by Special Delivery. You must claim within 80 days of posting and will need proof of posting. Items posted from the first Monday in December to the first working day in January require one extra day of waiting.
What are the last posting dates for Christmas 2026?
Royal Mail’s recommended dates are Friday 18 December for second class, Saturday 19 December for Tracked 48, Monday 21 December for first class and Tracked 24, and Wednesday 23 December for Special Delivery Guaranteed. They are recommendations and not guarantees, so posting several days earlier makes sense in areas with reported delays.
Could the government take back control of Royal Mail?
No such decision has been announced. The Prime Minister has warned of “further measures” if service does not improve, and the CWU is campaigning for a bigger government stake alongside workers. The company is owned by EP Group, Daniel Kretinsky’s investment firm, and we have seen no published outcome from the 3 November talks.